Camp Collection

Dave Camp, who served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1991 to 2015, has donated the collected materials from his 24 years in office to the University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library.

Camp, a Republican, represented Michigan’s Fourth Congressional District beginning in 1993, and previously served one term representing Michigan’s Tenth Congressional District. While in Congress, he served on the House Committee on Ways and Means from 1993 to 2015, working on tax, international trade, Medicare, Social Security and fiscal policy. As committee chair—one of the most powerful positions in Congress—he introduced the Tax Reform Act of 2014, the most comprehensive tax reform proposal since the mid-1980s.

In 2014, he announced that he would not run for re-election.

Dave Camp on the campaign trail in 1992.

Camp’s collection contains photographs, office records, polling data, surveys, notes, promotional materials, committee materials and more, including a scrapbook of newspaper clippings, printed photos throughout his political career, and digital holdings including 140 videos from Camp’s YouTube channel.

His collection also contains numerous get-well cards from Congressional colleagues and friends after he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma in 2012. He is now cancer-free.

Camp joins numerous other political leaders in the Bentley’s collection, including 31 Michigan governors, 15 U.S. senators and 17 members of the U.S. House of Representatives.

“I am delighted to be part the Bentley’s collections and to be in such fine historical company,” Camp said. “I am honored to have served the people of Michigan, who mean so much to me.”

Born in Midland in 1953, Camp graduated from Albion College magna cum laude in 1975. He earned a law degree from the University of San Diego in 1978 and practiced law in Midland. He served as special assistant to the Michigan attorney general (1980-1984), then worked on the staff of U.S. Representative Bill Schuette (1984-1987).

“Dave Camp’s impressive engagement with many of the most important fiscal issues in America during his term will make his papers an important source for those interested in recent American history,” said Terrence McDonald, director of the Bentley Historical Library.

The Bentley Historical Library has officially received the materials and will begin processing the collection to prepare for public use, which may take up to one year.